Like Bea had promised, Mae and she were now going shopping for Longest Night decorations and gifts. They were currently in their car on the way to the mall.

"So, has Jenny gotten back to you on that new job of hers yet?", asked Mae.

"No. She said I probably wouldn't find out until next week. They're putting her through some work to see if she can do the job.", replied Bea.

"Oh, okay."

A few moments of silence passed between the two.

"Hey, remember when we went to the Fort Lucene Mall?", asked Mae.

"Yeah. What about it?", questioned Bea.

"Well, we're going to a mall now. Doesn't it feel… what's the word…?"

"Nostalgic?"

"Yeah, that's it! Nostalgic. It feels kinda nostalgic, don't you think?"

"I guess. This mall isn't dying, though. That means there are going to be lots of people there, so no shoplifting, okay?", requested Bea.

"Aw man, but shoplifting is so much fun. You were great at it!"

"I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment."

"Trust me, it's totally a compliment."

"If you say so. Still, no shoplifting."

"Fine." Mae pouted next to Bea as she drove. Then, she started sniffing around a bit.

"Um, what are you doing?", asked Bea.

"Something doesn't smell right.", answered Mae.

"Really? I don't smell anything."

"Exactly. Why don't I smell… wait. I haven't seen you smoke once since we got to Bright Harbor."

"I quit, or at least I'm trying to."

Mae gasped, "That's great! Why now, though?"

"Why not now? We have a new life here, so I wanted to try and start completely fresh, and that meant kicking my smoking addiction.", Bea explained.

"Wow. I thought it was, like, impossible to quit smoking. Everyone I know who's tried to quit always fails after a few weeks."

"Well, I'm not through yet. I still get cravings, especially during work, but I can't let it take me back. I'm doing this."

"See, I knew you were badass. I can't believe I never noticed until now."

"I'm surprised, too. I mean, I thought you would have noticed that I didn't have one. I used to always have a cigarette around you."

"Eh, it doesn't really matter now. I think it's great that you're trying to quit."

"Thanks. Now that I have you cheering me on, I know I can quit."

"Yeah, that's the spirit!", cheered Mae.

Mae and Bea soon arrived at the mall. It was very packed.

"Why are there so many people?", asked Mae.

"It is the weekend before Longest Night. A lot of people still need to buy gifts and stuff, just like us.", answered Bea.

"Aw man, why'd we have to forget? It's going to take forever to get everything we need!"

"How about this. Take this money," Bea handed Mae a bunch of money out of her wallet, "And go buy some gifts for everyone. I'll go get decorations. We can say that the gifts are from both of us. That'll make everything easier."

"Okay, sounds great… Wait, no, it's not great! Why do I have to pick out gifts?! You did this on purpose, didn't you?!", but Bea was already gone. She had gone and left Mae with the hardest job while exempting herself from having to buy any of the gifts.

"Ugh, I hate trying to find good gifts for people." Mae sighed, "Oh well, I guess I'd better get started.", and thus, Mae's journey into the depths of the mall began.

"Alright. I need to get gifts for mom, dad, aunt mall cop, Gregg, Angus, Bea, and Lori. How much money do I have?"

Mae counted up the money Bea gave her, coming to a total of about 750 dollars.

"Remember your math skills, Mae. 750 divided by 7 people is about… a little over 100 per person. Huh, not bad. Where did all of this money come from? Is this from our savings, or is this just all from Bea's job somehow?"

Mae decided not to question it and get started on shopping. Where would she go first? She decided to look at one of the directories that happened to be near here.

"Okay, what am I close to that might have something that I could get?"

After scanning the map for a few moments, she found something.

"Oh, there's a cool horror shop just down here. I could probably find some fake blood or something for Lori there. How do you even keep a horror shop open during Longest Night season? That seems more like a Harfest thing. Whatever, as long as it has what I'm looking for, I shouldn't be complaining."

Mae went down to the horror store, and sure enough, there was all sorts of cool stuff to be bought. The only problem was how obviously fake a lot of it was. Nothing here would be used in a professional film production. In the end, Mae just decided to get some fake blood and leave. It wasn't until after she left that she realized her mistake. She would have to carry around a heavy bucket of blood around for the whole trip.

"Are you kidding me, brain? Why did you only think of this now?", Mae muttered despairingly to herself.

"Whatever. It's too late now." Mae decided to move on and see what else she spotted as she walked. The next store to catch her attention was one for collectible weapons. There were swords, guns, and most importantly, knives.

"Aw, yeah, those have Gregg written all over them!"

The question now was, what kind of knife was she going to buy? She knew a bit about knives from when Gregg would talk about them, but that was it. She was clueless as to what he would want.

"He'd probably want something he could carry on him. He keeps 2 in his jacket at all times. He might appreciate a third. You know, just in case he loses the other 2 somehow. They do have some pretty cool pocket knives here, and I did only spend, like, 20 dollars on the fake blood for Lori. Hmm…"

There were so many knives adorning the shelves, and Mae thought they all looked so cool. One did manage to catch her eyes more than the others, though. It had a pearly, silvery-white handle, and etched on the stainless-steel blade were the words 'Your life is worth protecting.' in an elegant cursive font.

"It really is beautiful. I bet he'd love it." The words on the blade were hitting close to home for Mae. She remembered the conversation she had with Gregg back in the woods.

I'm just parking lot trash. I've known that all along.

With that in mind, she picked up the knife. It was 150 dollars. Sighing, she decided to buy it anyways. She still had some extra from Lori's purchase, after all. With that, she left the store.

That was 2 down, and 5 to go.

The next store she came across was an electronics store. She knew she'd find something for Angus there.

"You know Angus likes computers, but that isn't really going to help you. You don't know anything about computers or what he needs.", thought Mae.

"Gregg's getting him a new computer, right? What else might he need?"

"How about a monitor? Is the computer Gregg's getting him going to have one already?"

"Whatever, just get one. People use multiple monitors for their computers. That's a thing."

Luckily for Mae, the price of high-quality computer parts had gone down substantially in the past 5 years. She was able to find what looked like a decent monitor for only 100 dollars. Upon asking an employee, they confirmed that it was, in fact, a good budget monitor.

With the purchase of a monitor, Mae only had to buy things for her family and Bea. What would she get for them, though?

"Jewelry's too predictable. I wonder if mom and dad replaced the coffee maker, yet?" Mae had broken her parents' coffee maker only days before she left. She had wanted to try coffee before work, but she swapped the places of the water and coffee mix, short-circuiting it.

"Damn, I wish I had a phone, so I could ask. Oh well, I guess I can get one and pray that they haven't gotten another one. That could work as a gift for both of them. I'll have to send it tonight."

Somehow, as Mae thought of this, she passed by a general appliance store. They would surely have a coffee maker. She settled for a decent 70-dollar coffee maker. Now, she only needed gifts for Aunt Molly and Bea, and she still had almost 400 dollars left.

"These two are going to be the hard ones. What would aunt mall cop even want? What if I got her that battle axe I mentioned that one time? Nah, that's probably too expensive. Wait, I've got it! I'll get her an air freshener! Seriously, every time I've been in that cop car, it's smelled terrible. She said it's from all of the drunks that have thrown up in her car. Man, I really am a genius."

Going back into the appliance store, they had some air fresheners at the front counter. Mae took one and purchased it. It was only a few dollars, but she knew she'd probably appreciate it.

"Okay, all that's left is to get Bea a gift.", Mae muttered to herself, "Again, jewelry is too predictable. What's something that she really wants or needs?"

A thought popped into the back of Mae's mind, "What she'd really like is a college acceptance letter, but no, you took that letter instead, and you wasted it."

"Shut up, not now. It's over. She's fine. She understands. Nobody cares anymore, so I shouldn't, either."

"I'm not a failure." Mae found that she had said that aloud, though quietly. No one seemed to hear her. Saying it out loud helped her push the bad thoughts away. Now, she was back to thinking about what to get for Bea. She needed to think fast. All of the stuff she was carrying was beginning to become a bit much for her.

"Think, think, think… Wait, how much money do I have left?"

Mae counted through her money. She had almost 390 dollars. She looked back to where she had come from the electronics store.

"What if I got her a phone? She could definitely use one of those! Yes, it's perfect! I can get her a really nice phone! I know we talked about it before."

With that, Mae rushed to find a good phone for Bea. Luckily, all of the phones weren't completely sold out, despite it being the weekend before Longest Night. With the last of her money, Mae bought the best smartphone she could along with a case. She kind of wished she could get a phone, but she pushed those thoughts aside. This was about giving, not getting.

With that, she went back to the exit where Bea had parked, and she was there, waiting. She did her best to conceal the phone beneath all of the other stuff she had bought.

"Wow, that's a lot.", commented Bea.

"I know. Of course, I decided to get the bucket of blood first. I had to carry it around with me the whole time."

"Who is that for?", asked Bea.

"Lori."

"Really? I didn't think you'd get her a gift."

"Why not? We're good friends. If I knew where Germ was, I'd have gotten him something, too."

"Okay. Well, I already put the decorations in the car. Here, let me take some of that."

When Bea went to take some stuff, Mae made sure not to give her the phone out of fear that she'd ask who it was for.

Bea looked at the knife, "This is for Gregg, I'm assuming?"

"Yeah."

"How about the monitor?"

"Angus."

"You got an air freshener?", questioned Bea.

"Yeah. That's for aunt mall cop's police car. I'm telling you, that thing smells horrible."

"How would you know?"

"I've… been in it before.", answered Mae, embarrassed.

"Yeah, that doesn't really surprise me."

"Come on. Let's stop talking about the gifts and go. This blood is still heavy, you know."

"Alright."

Before heading back to the apartment, Mae had Bea take her to the post office, so she could send her parents the coffee maker and the air freshener along with a short note explaining what they were for.

Mae was able to avoid letting Bea see the phone until they got home, where she hid it in the basket of clothes that Mae was too lazy to put in their dresser. When it was done, she sighed with relief.

The rest of the day was spent helping Bea put up decorations, including the tree. It was fake. It had to be. There was no way they'd be able to get a real tree into the apartment.

By the end of the day, all of the decorations were set, leaving the two a day to rest on Sunday. Then, it would only be a few more days of work until it was Longest Night. Mae was very excited.